Oxfam publishes advice on handling a cholera outbreak – but are we right?

Oxfam’s Cholera Outbreak Guidelines were developed as an internal resource, but today we are sharing them externally in order to seek input from the international humanitarian community. We hope that this feedback will inform later editions in order to develop a powerful resource for anyone looking to prepare for, prevent and control a cholera outbreak. Here, one of the authors of the Guideline, Bibi Lamond, explains more.

I have been responsible for implementing and coordinating cholera outbreak programmes since 2006. In my work I have found that, although there are numerous documents and books on medical intervention for cholera control, there are no comprehensive water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH) guidelines.

Oxfam’s new publication, the Cholera Outbreak Guidelines aims to meet this need and could set standards for other emergency WASH actors.

The content of the Guidelines has evolved from firsthand field experience in Oxfam’s emergency cholera programmes in Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. It has also drawn on information from other NGOs, such as Médecins Sans Frontières, renowned for their cholera work in the field.

We all know that rapid interventions are essential at the onset of a cholera outbreak to reduce preventable deaths. But, prior to the launch of these Guidelines, Oxfam WASH teams had no standardised way of designing cholera control activities. When Programme Managers asked for evidence of effective activities, WASH teams struggled. In terms of budget and staff numbers, cholera control programmes were often under-resourced from the very beginning due to a lack of guidance or lessons learned from past cholera programmes.

The new publication offers clear information for ensuring effective resources as soon as a cholera outbreak is reported. It aims to cover everything a health promoter, sanitation engineer, water engineer or programme manager will need to have at their finger tips to start up an effective WASH control programme with minimum delay.

It is packed with practical information hard-won from the field covering everything from the gender split of programme staff, to how to prevent cholera transmission at funerals, to what to do if someone has swallowed chlorine.

But Oxfam is not claiming to know all the answers. We are inviting comments, suggestions, new ideas and advice from our humanitarian colleagues from agencies around the world.

The Guidelines are available to download in English, French and Spanish.

Diana You can look at the role of MFIs in Kenya in Sanitation here. I was part of the team that did the evaluation of a program called WaterCredit supported by MasterCard Foundation. rwsnforum7.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/f...335_gupta_sanjay.pdf If you need more detail, you can write to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need Ja […]

Hi Everyone, This is turning out be a very informative discussion. Hopefully, someone from the corporate sector can share their insights. I agree with Nitya- for incentivisation, we need to reward companies for their behavior rather than adopt a "shame" approach. Our experience with corporates is that many of them are not well versed with what sani […]

Showers use a lot of water, which is drained off. When warm water is used, also the heat is lost unless a heat recovery system has been installed. To combat water and heat wastage the Upfallshower has been developed. The Upfallshower recycles 90% of the water, thus saving 90% of the water and energy requirements. The recycled water is filtered and UV desinfe […]

In my experience, if you are planning a biogas then perhaps using the same for cooking is fine but electricity is a more complicated process and not very suitable for IDP set up. THese require regular maintenance. So even if you are able to procure one, getting timely services and repair will be tough. You will usually not find these services locally.

Hi all, my name is Sanjay K Gupta and I work at Skat Switzerland. The outreach of companies for incentivizing sanitation, particular in rural sanitation is limited, unless the company having its CSR fund particularly focuses on rural segment of the population. Many of the companies themselves need orientation on sanitation and then developing a CSR plan that […]